Uconn

Connecticut's Stefanie Dolson, center battles for control of the ball against Louisville's Monique Reid, left and Louisville's Jude Schimmel, right, during the first half of an NCAA college basketball game in Hartford, Conn., Tuesday, Jan. 15, 2013. (AP Photo/Jessica Hill)

HARTFORD -- The UConn women's basketball team started its most important homestand of the season with much more than a 72-58 victory over No. 15-ranked Louisville. The Huskies began their three-game stretch with an encouraging healing process.

With challenging games against Syracuse (15-1) on Saturday and No. 4-ranked Duke (15-0) on Monday, it was important for the Huskies to build a bit of momentum in the win over Louisville and begin the process of becoming whole for the first time this season. They appeared to accomplish both.

The most heartening development was the play of junior guard Bria Hartley. She was far from perfect as she shot just 6-of-15 from the field and had four turnovers with just one assist, but there were good signs in her overall play.

Hartley, who has been hampered all season by a severe sprain and a minor ligament tear in her left ankle, played with energy and confidence. While she continued to struggle to shoot 3-pointers (3-of-11), she didn't limit herself to safely floating behind the 3-point arc. She ran the court well, drove to the basket, made hard cuts, aggressively attacked the boards and played 33 productive minutes.

She shared game-high scoring honors (16 points) with Stefanie Dolson and also had seven rebounds.

"A lot of Bria's game is, if you come out on her really hard, she is good at getting in the lane and hitting that pull-up jump shot or getting to the basket and drawing contact," coach Geno Auriemma said. "I think with the bad ankle, she felt like, 'I'm limited and now I can't do the things that I'm good at. Now I'm relegated to just staying out there and shooting.' There is no amount of talking, cajoling or anything like that is going to change that until she feels that spark again and that quickness, and she certainly played that way (Tuesday)."

Hartley said it felt good to put some of the frustrations of the past couple months behind her and just play well for a change. She scored the two biggest baskets of the game midway through the first half on back-to-back possessions. She made a 3-pointer then grabbed a defensive rebound, pushed the ball aggressively up court, made a hard cut to the basket and scored a layup while drawing a foul.

The baskets pushed the Huskies' lead from four points to 10, and Louisville never threatened again.

"We've got some young guards," Auriemma said. "Bria has played more bas-

See UCONN, Page 5C

ketball than all of them combined probably, at the college level. So we really, really, really need her. Because when she is playing like she did (Tuesday night), when she is doing the things that she did with the attitude that she had, she makes the difference in a game like this."

Another really encouraging sign came prior to the game when Breanna Stewart looked very good while going through the morning shootaround and pregame warm-ups. She showed Auriemma that her intelligent and aggressive approach to rehabbing her badly sprained ankle was going to allow her to come back much sooner than originally hoped.

"It's up to the person who is trying to get better how quickly they get better sometimes," Auriemma said. "And Breanna Stewart wants to play. And she probably made life miserable for (athletic trainer) Rosemary (Ragle) every day since the injury, because she wants to play. I wouldn't be surprised if she's on the phone at 2 o'clock in the morning saying, `What do I have to do right now?' Because she wants to be out on the floor. She's a great competitor."

Auriemma said he could have played Stewart if he absolutely had to, but he preferred to hold her out for a second straight game so she wouldn't suffer any setbacks and would be fully ready against Syracuse and Duke.

Stefanie Dolson made it easy by doing a great job of controlling the post play with 16 points and nine rebounds. The Huskies also received 12 minutes of quality play out of Kiah Stokes. Stokes' play caused Auriemma to decide he has to give her more opportunities now that she seems to have recovered from the shin injury that forced her to miss five games.

She scored only two points but had six rebounds, three blocks and an assist while playing well defensively.

"Kiah Stokes was great," Auriemma said. "With Kiah, you almost ask yourself like, `Are you capable of doing that every night if we put you in? And I think what I'm going to do is just throw her out there and see what she does. And when she plays like she played tonight leave her in there. Kiah's minutes at Connecticut are completely dependent on her, and the way she played tonight it changes our team a little bit. If we could ever play those two and Breanna Stewart together that's not a bad way to go against some teams during certain situations. But I want to see Kiah do that more than once before I'm ready to say that this is what we're going to get from her every night."

Follow Us

Post a reader comment

We encourage your feedback and dialog. Please be civil and respectful.If you're witty, to the point and quotable, your reader comments may also be included on the Around the Towns page of The Sunday Republican. Readers must be registered and logged in to post comments on the site. Registration is free. Click Here to register.
A Subscription is not required to post comments only a Registration.